Tag: rain

May 30th – There was something of the smug git about me when I arrived home. I sat on the train, watching the rain pound down on north Birmingham and Sutton. Station after station, wet commuters got on or off the train. Resigned to my fate, I hopped off at Shenstone, to find the rain had stopped. The sun was trying to come out. The sky was still threatening, so I sped home, enjoying the sun, and wondering if the spots I felt on my legs were road spray or rain starting again. Completely against the odds I arrived home dry and warm.

Life doesn’t usually reward me like this. Further down the line I’ll pay, I just know it…

May 30th – That false sense of security. Today, I headed to Telford in light, summer clothes. It was a lovely, sunny morning and the riding was good, but late into the afternoon, the skies darkened. Although the BBC internet forecast didn’t predict rain, it looked like we we in for a storm.

I cycled to the station at my normal time – and it started to rain as the train pulled out. When I arrived at New Street, the rain storm was torrential. Water issued up from platform drains and the overheads crackled ominously. I was going to get drowned. I started to root in the saddlebag to check for aqua pacs for my electronic gadgets…

May 9th – It was still summer when I came home – but it was a typical English summer, in that it was raining. But it was a soft rain, the kind of gentle, warm rain you get when the air is still. A vague haze sat over the countryside, and everything smelt of growth and pollen. I actually enjoyed being out in this, it was refreshing and sweet. The roads were quiet and I enjoyed gliding through the wet, glistening, growing countryside. 

In Shenstone, St. Johns Hill was back to being the green canopied tunnel it normally becomes in high summer, and at the Footherley Brook, I understood just how far things had come in a few weeks. 

May 7th – The pools and ponds around Clayhanger and it’s commons are healthy again. They had been in a very poor state, particularly the one by the pedestrian bridge. It’s water level had been very low indeed since last summer. Since the recent rains, all have been topped up. It was typical rainy, dull and cold bank holiday weather when I came this way at lunchtime. On the new pool at Clayhanger, the waterfowl were enjoying the soft drizzle and honking loudly.

May 5th – Chasewater’s refilling has slowed up with the cessation in rain, but my, how it’s changing. All the land drains and streams are flowing well, with water also coming in from the new culvert in the railway causeway, under Turner’s Hill. The secondary outlet culvert is nearly submerged now, and sailing or windsurfing is clearly on the menu as new marker bouys have been laid around it to warn of the hazard. Grass growing on the formerly dry lake bed is now submerged, and looks like reed beds from afar. Many of the smaller pools are steadily linking together.

A fantastic thing to witness, for sure.

May 3rd – Curiosity got the better of me, so on the way home from work I cycled over to Chasewater to see how the water levels were going. There’s been a quite marked rise since Sunday, as runoff and the streams and creeks that supply the reservoir catch up with the recent weather. I feel the most interesting stage of the gradual refilling will come inn about a metre’s time, when the pool at the foot of the pier rejoins the main lake. However, that will require far more water, and far more bad weather. I’m currently getting webbed feet as it is…

May 1st – After yesterday’s break in the sun, it was back to the rain and howling wind, which unusually, was behind me on my way to Darlaston. I haven’t been this way much in recent weeks, and the commute was reasonably enjoyable, despite the rain. The flooding on Green Lane, Walsall Wood has occurred for as long as I can remember, and never gets any better, even though drainage works have been undertaken. This is the lowest point in Jockey Meadows, and is the crossing point of the marsh that drains from Shire Oak and High Heath. It’s easy to come a cropper here – I’ve seen cars hit the water and slew, and drenching the cyclist is a fun game for the local driving yobs.

April 29th – Chasewater was lovely in the damp twilight. The rain where I was had ceased, but there was still a shower ongoing on the northern shore, which hung in a damp cloud. To the west, he sky was bright and reflected off the surface of the pools and wet ground. The dam itself looked soft and distant through the wet air. The smell, too, was beautiful; the after-rain scent mingled with balsam and pollen. An oddly beautiful evening which was very, very unexpected.

April 28th – I headed up to Chasewater on my way to Burntwood, to check out the water level. Last week, the water was only lapping at the right hand side of the mound around the drain culvert – soon it will be submerged. I noticed the grass – encouraged by the earlier rain – now submerged. I have no figures, but would guess the water has risen by about half a meter. This is good, but don’t be fooled; for every centimetre the water rises, the area of the lake increases massively. The journey to 75% full will be a lot quicker than the one from 75%-100%. It is good to see, though…

April 27th – Returning from work, I was caught in yet another rainstorm. I had to go to Brownhills, and it was grim. Traffic was backed up, the wind was gusting and I was sodden and sullen. As I came from Lichfield along Barracks Lane, though, a sight of summer caught my eye; anonymous, usually unnoticed, a gateway. Today, even in the pouring rain, it was green, verdant. Purple flowers speckled the long grass, bursting out around it. I marvelled at it for a least ten minutes. I’m beginning to think I may have a screw loose.